Is BASIC Useful for Making Games?

[Magmavision2000]

I've heard that BASIC is slower than assembly, but has there been any games made with BASIC that we're comparable to assembly games, or is it only good for text adventures?

[carlsson]

Which BASIC and which system are you thinking about? An interpreting dialect from the 80's has its shortcomings for sure, but nowadays even BASIC tends to be cross compiled into just as good executables as any other higher level language like C. Often the difference to pure assembly language is relatively little, in particular if you factor in the development time.

[Magmavision2000]

11 minutes ago, carlsson said:

Which BASIC and which system are you thinking about? An interpreting dialect from the 80's has its shortcomings for sure, but nowadays even BASIC tends to be cross compiled into just as good executables as any other higher level language like C. Often the difference to pure assembly language is relatively little, in particular if you factor in the development time.

I'm mainly talking about the built in BASIC for microcomputers from the 80s.

[carlsson]

Ok. Besides text adventures, also strategy games obviously work just as well in BASIC. With the right programming techniques, you can even get action games running rather smooth, sometimes with helper routines in machine code. Sometimes they compiled BASIC programs in the 80's as well, though not super common to do that.

[zzip]

20 hours ago, Magmavision2000 said:

I'm mainly talking about the built in BASIC for microcomputers from the 80s.

Yes those will be much slower than assembly language, and often more limited.   Sometimes there are Basic compilers available or better Basics that are more optimized for game development.

[Mr SQL]

New BASIC's for computers from the 70's and 80's like batari BASIC and SuperCharger BASIC for the Atari VCS allow you to write BASIC Video Games at Machine Language speed. One thing I really liked about the era were the programming books with screenshots on the cover of what looked like colorful Atari 2600 games that could apparently be written in BASIC, spanning systems with no color or sound. They didn't compare of course but BASIC games were tremendous fun and educational, they still inspire us  

 

BASIC design improvements kept up as hardware improved -

 

This interesting video features the history with a powerful 90's BASIC for creating 3D games on the Sega Saturn:

 

 

[JamesD]

It depends on the machine and the game.
Some interpreters are faster than others, and some games require real time response to user input (arcade games) but others may not (RPG, adventure, simulation...).
From what I've seen of the internals of Microsoft BASIC, it was designed to be easy to port., but it wasn't exactly written for speed. 
On a 1MHz (or less) CPU it can be a bit sluggish.
On 1.77MHz or faster system, it's not so bad, and I'd guess it's not bad on many 3.5MHz or faster Z80s.
BBC BASIC on the BBC Micro (2MHz) is supposed to be pretty fast.

How you write the code also helps determine how fast your game is.
Someone recently released a BASIC arcade game, and I sent him a modified version that ran...
maybe 5%(more?) faster with less than an hour's work, and the changes were pretty simple using a modern editor.
 

[bluejay]

To be awfully honest, the traditional 80s microcomputer BASIC is a kid's toy compared to assembly language. It simply isn't capable of doing things that can be done in assembly. It really depends on what system you are going to use. If you're using, say, a stock Commodore 64, you're going to have a pretty bad time because Commodore BASIC 2.0, quite frankly, rubbish. Besides, a C64 is slow. However, if you're using a faster computer with better BASIC, like the C128(which can operate in 2mhz in certain conditions) and has a much better version of BASIC that is capable of dealing with much more stuff, then it's possible to make a neat game with it.

Of course, people have figured out ways to code pretty impressive games in BASIC, such as the 8 bit guy's Tetris programmed on a C64.(Although I have to say, it's playable at best.)

Anyways, my point is, BASIC is most recommended as an introduction to programming and I suggest you move on to more powerful languages as you learn.

Edited September 13, 2020 by bluejay